FUNDRAISING TO STUDY AT THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF DRAMATIC ARTS

Hey my lovelies,

Today is a pretty exciting day for me as I have officially enrolled and sent off all my forms for The American Academy of Dramatic Arts. I am now just waiting for my I-20 form so I can finally apply for my visa.

The next step for me is to get a start on my fundraiser as I now only have seven months until I leave. I know it sounds like ages away, but there is still so much to sort out and with my third year at Central coming to end, I really have to focus on my dissertation.

When I started fundraising I thought it would be as simple as setting up a page and people would donate, however, I was sadly mistaken. It involves so much more than that and can be quite disheartening when you don't get any donations.

Back in November I sent out about 200 letters to a variety of organisations in the arts and I only received three replies, which unfortunately were all rejections. It did make me lose confidence in my fundraiser. I soon realised that I had managed to get this far when I didn't expect to, I couldn't just give up. I decided to research different ways to fundraiser when I came across this amazing article 'How to Raise £40,000 and Train at Drama School' by Damien Gaskin. Although this was written in the 1990's and prices since then has gone up I was still sceptical about being able to raise an unrealistic amount of money in such a short period of time. I don't have that much experience when it comes to fundraising other than The Race for Life I fundraised for in 2014 for cancer, this article however did give me some amazing ideas on how to start.

I decided it was finally time to start the next batch of letters. I planned on sending one to everybody I know including local businesses, friends and family members, charities and specific actors. Each person would receive a personalised letter, along with a small A5 flyer that I created and printed myself, with all the links to my audition, previous works and a link to my GoFundMe page.
As stamps are extremely expensive and I ended up wasting over a £100, I was advised not to include an SAE. I also made the decision to post 25-30 letters each month, rather than 200 letters all at once.

One important tip I have learnt from reading Damien's article is that you should always give a specific amount you are asking for in a donation. In my first set of letters I explained that I needed to raise $45,000. The problem with this is many of the sponsors may have thought that I was asking them to donate the full amount, rather than just sending a small donation. This time I explained that just a small donation of £20 would go a long way in helping me to achieve my dream. I also explained that I was hoping to create an auction as part of my fundraiser in April so any donated good would also be appreciated.

Now I'm not exactly getting my high hopes up, but it would be amazing even if I received just one donation or response.

I will also be creating a variety of fundraisers such as a bake sale, raffle and possibly selling some of my crystallised creations through another auction.

Hopefully I will get some responses but all I can do for now is keep my fingers crossed and wait!

If you would like to donate, please do via this link www.gofundme.com/studyinla. As a thank you, I will send a personalised letter and certificate.




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